The government team of the City Hall of Durango has shown its concern about the air benzene that suffers the locality. The analysis of odors presented by the City Hall itself in 2020 detected benzene peaks of 788 micrograms per cubic meter, coming from Iurreta. And that presence of benzene has been confirmed by the study prepared by the Basque Government and presented this year with data collected by mobile stations in 2021. According to the City Hall of Durango, in 2021 the legal limits of benzene have been exceeded.

In view of this concern, the municipal government team will present a motion at the plenary session on Wednesday, with a clear objective: To request the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment of the Basque Government a shared study for Durango and Iurreta. The objective of the Durango City Hall would be to identify with this study the origin of the benzene detected by the two cited studies.

In a statement made public by the City Hall of Durango, the council recalled that "it is necessary to put the necessary means, take urgent measures to locate the origin of these emissions and put an end to these emissions". Furthermore, "inter-institutional working tables should be set up to work together on the solutions and measures needed to protect citizens from pollution".

Responding to these needs, it will make specific requests to the Department for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment. One of them would be to carry out a study to identify the origin of benzene "involving both municipalities in the whole diagnostic process". In addition, you will be asked to update the parameters of the Air Quality Network, as the legal limits established in the CAPV "exceed the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO)", as well as "the introduction of these values in the ways and procedures that you use to make such information public". Thirdly, there will also be a demand for the implementation of the agreements adopted by the Basque Parliament in the motion of 4 October 2018, on "action protocols to ensure the health of citizens in the face of air pollution". Finally, the creation of a working party would be considered. This table would bring together representatives of the Department of Health and the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, the City of Durango and Iurreta, as well as representatives of accredited environmental organizations "in which, depending on their respective competences, the correct implementation of the measures adopted in this resolution will be supervised".